As the people who have been reading my reports already know, I haven’t been doing very well in my walleye fishing lately. However, the weather, wind, and water temps have finally been stable enough for a while to get the fish fired up in the areas I’ve been fishing.
A couple days ago I headed out of the Ford by myself and caught 12 walleyes between 21 and 25 inches, three big bass, and three sheepsheads. I started out trolling crawler harnesses on the first reef south of Round Island in 19-24 FOW. I ended up catching six walleyes, and the three sheepsheads, as well as a bunch of misses while doing this. Over those depths, I was running #5 and #6 Colorado blades behind in-line weights that ranged from ¾ - 1 ½ oz. Color didn’t seem to matter, and anywhere from 12 feet down to right on the bottom seemed to produce. The only thing that seemed crucial was that I got my speed less than 1.0 mph. Anything faster than that and I didn’t get bit. 0.8 was my target speed, and I had to drag a drift sock and troll with a bow-mount to achieve this speed.
After the sun started to get lower in the sky, I headed up to the very top of that reef to anchor and cast crankbaits. I only fished this way for about an hour, and in that time I boated six more walleyes and three bass that were 17, 18, and 20 inches. It was crazy. If I could take three casts without a fish of some kind it was a miracle.
After that kind of success I headed back out there again yesterday, this time with my dad and grandpa. We pretty much did all of the same stuff, and the fishing was even better! We started fishing at about 5:30 pm and had 15 nice walleyes and a couple sheepies by 9:00. We were pretty much using the same method as the day before: First reef south of Round Island, 19-24 FOW, Spinners and in-line weights. The best setup seemed to be a 1 ½ oz weight, 23 feet back from the board because the fish were close to the bottom.
The only letdown of the trip was that the shallow water evening bite wasn’t quite as good. We anchored in the same place and, in the hour that we where there, only caught two walleyes that were 22 and 26 inches, and two bass that were 15 and 18 inches between the three of us. Things sure can change from one day to the next! One thing I suspect is that, since it was a lot windier on the day that I caught all of those fish in that shallow water right before dark, they might have been feeding more aggressively. Yesterday the wind was nothing more than a breeze. Wind is a pain in the butt to fish in, but it does make the fish more aggressive. Anyway, we ended up catching 17 walleyes between 18 and 26 inches, two bass, and a couple of sheepies. What a fantastic day!
The fish are biting guys. Go get um!